- making your 50th wedding anniversary toast part of their golden love story

Whether you're the husband, wife, a dear friend, or child of the couple celebrating, the speech you give you'll want to touch the hearts and minds of all who hear it.

Your goal is to distill the essence of 50 years of marriage into 4 to 5 minutes; to make your audience laugh, cry a little and reflect.

What to put in 50th wedding anniversary speeches:

You'll need a smattering of anecdotes
These are those funny little stories that have become legend through the years. The ones telling about how this couple met and their courtship. Who proposed to who, when and how?

Add a dash of or two of wisdom
What is the glue binding these two?Current statistical data tells us that around 40% of marriages in the United States end in divorce.
There's something very special holding this marriage together. 50 years of partnership obviously has values worthy of celebration. Acknowledging and sharing them is truly inspirational for everyone. What positive qualities underpin this marriage?

Stir in the stories
Tell of family incidents, about hobbies or passions, times of trials and how they were overcome, enduring and endearing habits, jobs, community and mutual friends.

Lots of love
Give thanks, gratitude, respect, admiration and acknowledgement of time and support given, services rendered, sacrifices made, and experiences shared.

And a sprinkle of quotations
Recall a habitual saying, a line from a song or poem that has personal significance, a verse, or a meaningful quotation.(The link will take you to a large eclectic, cross-cultural collection of wedding poems and readings many of which are suitable for 50th wedding anniversary toasts.)

Preparing 50th wedding anniversary speeches

First gather your ingredients

The easiest way to do this is to brainstorm.

Get yourself a blank piece of paper and without any thought of order, (beginning, middle or end of your speech), start jotting down ideas as they come to you.

Think in pictures and make them big, multi-colored ones. Now add sound, smell or taste to bring those memories back to life.

As each occurs note down a single word or a phrase - just enough to serve as a peg to hold the idea firm in your mind. You'll return to it later to flesh it out in detail if you decide it's wanted.

Do not dwell too long on any one idea. Work quickly and keep going until you run out of ideas, time or paper!

Review and Revise

Now go back through your notes and review them. Get rid of the weak and only keep the best or strongest ideas.

"Our wedding was many years ago.The celebration continues to this day."- Gene Perret

Have you covered all the areas you wanted?

Is there too much of any one topic?

Not enough of another?

Tweak until you've got the balance how you want it.

Organizing your golden wedding anniversary speech

With your notes ready to go you're set for the next step; organizing your 50th wedding anniversary speech. This is where you will order the flow of your material.

What comes first? What comes next? What's the link between these ideas? Can you see a theme uniting all your material?

To help you organize download a blank speech outline template. The template will guide you through structuring the opening, body and conclusion of your speech getting your notes in the best and most effective order possible.

How do these guidelines work?
Read 'Love for all seasons' - a sample 50th anniversary toast prepared using them.

Rehearsing 50th wedding anniversary speeches

Writing the outline of the speech is only part of the process. Rehearsing it is essential if you want it to be memorable for the right reasons.

Once you practice it out loud you'll find out whether it's too long, too short, the content doesn't flow as well as it could or there may even be parts needing a complete overhaul.

If possible give your speech to a couple of close family members or friends and ask them for feedback to help you fine tune. Practice too if you can in the venue. This will give you an idea of the volume you need in order to be heard or where to stand to be seen by
everybody.

Related links to help you prepare:

story telling in speeches
How to make your anecdotes or stories come alive. You'll find ongoing links on characterization and story telling set-ups too.

Swap tears for laughter

A complete one stop resource for teachers to scuttle public speaking fear in the best of all possible ways - with laughter!

What teachers say:
- "Thank you so much for making my class fun, and not scary!"
- "My students are 8th graders - a tough crowd to engage but these games are working very well."
- "Your materials provide great structure and content examples."Who are these people saying lovely things? Click to see.Make your speech class fun too.

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